IPL 2021 Phase 2: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is desperately waiting to hear from the Cricket West Indies (CWI) on their request to prepone Caribbean Premier League (CPL) by 7-10 days. As reported earlier by InsideSport, BCCI had made request on 30th May but is yet to hear from the West Indian board.
“We are in discussions with Cricket West Indies for advancing CPL by a week. We are hopeful things will be resolved,” a BCCI official told InsideSport.
IPL 2021 Phase 2 – Why BCCI want Caribbean Premier League to be advanced? The BCCI had earlier confirmed that IPL 2021 Phase 2 will begin tentatively on September 17-19 in the UAE. As the first week of the tournament will coincide with that of the CPL 2021, players availability would have been a problem. Hence, the BCCI had requested CWI to advance CPL by a few days so that the likes of Andre Russell, Chris Gayle and Chris Morris would be available without any problem.
However, as it stands, BCCI is yet to hear anything from CWI.
IPL 2021 Phase 2: Foreign players availability big headache for BCCI & IPL franchises
While the BCCI has announced the window, it is yet to make an official announcement on the dates. The primary reason behind that is CWI. BCCI needs clarity on players’ availability to schedule matches so that players can join the IPL teams’ bubbles before the tournament resumed.
IPL 2021 Phase 2: With various bilateral series and CPL going on simultaneously, the BCCI will face a logistical nightmare as all the players must reach the UAE at least 5-7 days before the tournament starts.
As the CPL starts on August 28 and goes on till September 19, the minimum quarantine requirement would mean that many players will miss the first 10 days of IPL. That essentially forced the BCCI to request Cricket West Indies to advance the CPL 2021 by 7-10 days.
“We will speak to all the boards about the availability of their players. We will also speak to Cricket West Indies, we always had a great relationship with everyone and we are confident some solution will come out in the next few days”, one of the top BCCI officials said after attending the BCCI SGM on May 29.
IPL 2021 Phase 2: Players like Pat Cummins, Shakib Al Hasan, Mustafizur Rahman has already been confirmed dropping out of IPL in UAE along with the top England players.
While England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have already refused to give permission to their cricketers to play IPL Phase 2 on account of Bilateral Series and preparation of T20 World Cup, Bangladesh Cricket Board has also made their stand clear on the same account.
Cricket Australia is yet to officially declare their stand on IPL 2021 Phase 2 – but it has been confirmed by various media outlets and Kolkata Knight Riders former captain Dinesh Karthik that Pat Cummins will not be available for IPL in UAE.
ALSO READ IN HINDI:
All of these developments make BCCI’s conversation with Cricket West Indies very crucial – if CWI refuse to pay heed on BCCI’s request, almost every IPL franchise will get affected by the same.